REFILE-Israel media talk of imminent Iran war push

* Newspaper: Netanyahu seeks strike before US ballot

* Israeli opinions shifting, but consensus elusive

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM, Aug 10 Israel's prime minister and
defence minister would like to attack Iran's nuclear sites
before the U.S. election in November but lack crucial support
within their cabinet and military, an Israeli newspaper said on
Friday.

The front-page report in the biggest-selling daily Yedioth
Ahronoth came amid mounting speculation - fuelled by media leaks
from both the government and its detractors at home and abroad -
that war with Iran could be imminent even though it might
rupture the bedrock ties between Israel and the United States.

"Were it up to Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, an Israeli
military strike on the nuclear facilities in Iran would take
place in the coming autumn months, before the November election
in the United States," Yedioth said in the article by its two
senior commentators, which appeared to draw on discussions with
the defence minister but included no direct quotes.

Spokesmen for Prime Minister Netanyahu and Barak declined to
comment.

Yedioth said the top Israeli leaders had failed to win over
other security cabinet ministers for a strike on Iran now,
against a backdrop of objections by the armed forces given the
big tactical and strategic hurdles such an operation would face.

"The respect which in the past formed a halo around prime
ministers and defence ministers and helped them muster a
majority for military decisions, is gone, no more," Yedioth
said. "Either the people are different, or the reality is
different."

Israel has long threatened to attack its arch-foe, seeing a
mortal menace in Iranian nuclear advances and dwindling
opportunities to deal them a blow with its limited military
clout. Washington has urged Israel to give diplomacy more time.

The war talk is meant, in part, to stiffen sanctions on
Tehran - which denies seeking the bomb and says its nuclear
programme is for peaceful purposes - by conflict-wary world
powers. Israel and the United States have publicly sought to
play down their differences, the latter saying military force
would be a last-ditch option against Iran.

A Reuters survey in March found that most Americans would
support such action, by their government or Israel's, should
there be evidence Iran was building nuclear weapons - even if
the result was a rise in gas prices.

BOMB, BALLOT

But U.S. President Barack Obama, seeking re-election in
November, has counselled against what he would deem premature
Israeli unilateralism. He recently sent top officials to try to
close ranks with the conservative Netanyahu.

Obama's Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, an old friend of
Netanyahu who casts himself as a more reliable bulwark for
Israeli security, also visited Jerusalem last month.

The Yedioth article said, without citing sources, that some
government advisers in Israel and the United States believed a
pre-November strike might "embarrass Obama and contribute to
Romneys chances of being elected."

Yedioth said the aim of an initial Israeli attack on Iran
could be to trigger an escalation that would draw in superior
U.S. forces - but described Barak as dismissive of this theory.

"He believes that America will not go to war, but will do
everything in its power to stop it. It will give Israel the keys
to its emergency (munitions) stores, which were set up in Israel
in the past. Israel needs no more than this," Yedioth said.

Netanyahu, apparently trying to avoid being seen as meddling
in U.S. politics, has voiced gratitude for cross-partisan
support of Israel in Washington, while insisting his country
remains responsible for its own security.

Haaretz, an influential liberal Israeli newspaper, quoted an
unnamed senior official in the Netanyahu government as saying
the Jewish state - widely assumed to have the region's only
atomic arsenal - potentially faced a greater danger from Iran
than on the eve of its 1967 war with several Arab neighbours.

That thinking seems to be gaining ground domestically.

A poll published on Friday by the mass-circulation Maariv
daily found that 41 percent of Israelis saw no chance of
non-military pressure on Iran succeeding, versus 22 percent who
thought diplomacy could work.

While 39 percent of Maariv's respondents said dealing with
Iran should be left to the United States and other world powers,
35 percent said they would support Israel going it alone as a
last resort - up from previous polls that found around 20
percent support for the unilateral option.